I've done this 2 times and good both times.they all wanted to get back in but some couldn't find the door.i did figure that bowl of cracked corn didn't mean nothing to them after getn the yard.they were happy hens.
I keep my hens in a fenced off corner of my yard. I've never had an issue with predators. They'd occasionally jump over the chicken wire (not the chainlink fence between my yard and the neighbors yard though) and run around the back yard, but they were pretty easy to catch, since they come when called. Once they stopped laying though, we took down the fence and let them have free run of the whole back yard all the time (whole yard is fenced). They stopped sleeping in the coop though (even though they could easily get to it, same as always) and favored sleeping underneath the addition my dad built, which has about a 10-12" space under it. We didn't mind them sleeping under the house, since they weren't laying. But now that I've got new pullets, I'm fencing off the corner again to make sure they lay in the coop so I can find the eggs easily.